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 maryanne3087
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Registered: 06/27/10
Posts: 318
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 Coco treated as soil? 
#451027 - 07/24/10 11:35 PM (1 month, 16 days ago) |
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Hello folks,
I've been playing around with coco recently and want to use up some organic nutrients & additives I have along with some HG soil nutrients. I want to make an organic soil using coir as the base. I've looked at many grows on icmag where users tried to adapt coco with little success. I found one guy who LIGHTLY amended his coco and fed guano tea lightly and got extremely vigorous growth but ended with deficiencies galore weeks 3 on.
I'm thinking most of these growers problem is pH and lack of amendments. Regardless of their failure I am not discouraged.
The mix I will be using will be...
Coco @ 75%
Earth Worm Castings @ 15%
Guano @ 10% (high P)
further I'll use 1/4 cup Kelp Meal per 5gals, Bloodmeal and Bonemeal(steamed = high P) at 1cup per 5gals, and ~2cups dolomite lime per 5gals some of this may be substituted with hydrated lime to add soluble calcium quickly. I suspect this mixture will be well aerated drain well and have a balanced buffet until I need to further feed the plants.
Anyone use coco based soils with success before?
Best Regards,
MA3087
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 TheShroomJew23
The Chemist
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 708
Last seen: 11 hours, 29 minutes
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: maryanne3087]
#451073 - 07/25/10 04:16 AM (1 month, 16 days ago) |
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I grew crazy insane morning glories in coir for like two summers with no problems, I justed adjusted pH and checked runoff for its nutrient levels to see if salt build up had set in.
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maryanne3087
Stranger
Registered: 06/27/10
Posts: 318
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adjusted the pH to what? Did you amend the coir as a soil or did you feed hydroponic nutrients?
I'm looking to treat the coir as a soil mix with a pH of 6.8 or so.
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 DungenessDank
Behold The Pale Horse
Registered: 05/06/08
Posts: 5,137
Loc: PNW
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: maryanne3087]
#451171 - 07/25/10 03:46 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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I'm pretty sure coir has a neutral PH of 7.
Remember to thoroughly flush the coco before mixing it in.
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TheShroomJew23
The Chemist
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I used 70% coir, 20% verm, 10% perlite and like just 2% peat moss for shits and giggles. I used foxfarm on half and technaflora on the other, they both did pretty well but technaflora did better of the two.
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maryanne3087
Stranger
Registered: 06/27/10
Posts: 318
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Quote:
TheShroomJew23 said:
I used 70% coir, 20% verm, 10% perlite and like just 2% peat moss for shits and giggles. I used foxfarm on half and technaflora on the other, they both did pretty well but technaflora did better of the two.
You treated the coir as a more hydroponic or soil-less medium than a soil then? Coir, verm, and perlite are all inert I'm looking to make a soil with coir instead of peat containing manures.
Also curious why you would use vermiculite with coir, coir holds plenty of water and is more aerated.
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kyuzo
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: maryanne3087]
#451290 - 07/25/10 08:37 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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"I'm thinking most of these growers problem is pH and lack of amendments. Regardless of their failure I am not discouraged."
Could this have anything to do with the the accelerated decomposition rate of peat vs coir, and the bacterial load that would form during the process?
I know orchid growers used to have a real issue with this and the bacteria that was involved with the breakdown of bark chips. But in that instance the bacteria was consuming an excess of nitrogen and causing deficiencies. Here it could be something similar, or a bacteria making nutrients available in the decomposing peat
Edited by kyuzo (07/25/10 08:39 PM)
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maryanne3087
Stranger
Registered: 06/27/10
Posts: 318
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: kyuzo]
#451304 - 07/25/10 09:10 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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That's exactly what I was thinking. I thought of it after making this post and it's addressed in my later post on ICMAG.
Peat is made of SLOWLY decaying plant matter whereas coco has nearly no decay. I may abort this mission and just use coco as a soil-less mix.
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TheShroomJew23
The Chemist
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Last seen: 11 hours, 29 minutes
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: maryanne3087]
#451392 - 07/26/10 01:33 AM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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Coco is an awesome soil-less mixture when done right and I had verm lying around, I like how it feels ok.
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maryanne3087
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Registered: 06/27/10
Posts: 318
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Quote:
TheShroomJew23 said:
Coco is an awesome soil-less mixture when done right and I had verm lying around, I like how it feels ok.
Alright... well the topic is soils made mainly of coco, not soil-less mediums made mainly of coco and vermiculite.
Thanks for your input 
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kyuzo
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: maryanne3087]
#451491 - 07/26/10 01:13 PM (1 month, 14 days ago) |
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just wanted to add that many Thai Adenium growers use a coir mix that is heavily manured, but that it's also amended with clay and various other stuff like leaves
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maryanne3087
Stranger
Registered: 06/27/10
Posts: 318
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Re: Coco treated as soil? [Re: kyuzo]
#451613 - 07/26/10 06:35 PM (1 month, 14 days ago) |
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Coir is used a lot in Asia with amendments but I don't know what traditional practices are for amendments and compost time/lack of compost time.
I don't want to compost my soil, I'd rather spend a bit extra for high grade composted amendments.
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